Pages

Monday, December 30, 2013

New Year Is Upon Us with Perfume Giveaway

The old year isn't quite over, its many gifts settling in and the new one tentatively stealing a glimpse, and I'm celebrating by offering my readers a special treat on this special day: A brand new bottle of Amouage Dia perfume 30ml in a velvety pouch which will be given to one lucky reader who will comment on this post and suggest their favorite charity. The draw is open internationally until Friday 3rd 2014 midnight and winner will be announced in the weekend.

Below Pantelis Thalassinos sings the (fragrant!) folk version of the New Year's Carols from Chios island in Greece. I wish you all the many blessings of the lyrics.

"Good evening I say, ushering fragrant air,
from the frothing waves, sung a thousand times over.

No stone should crack in the house we came to
and may the landlord live for many years.

Saint Basil dear and my dear Saint Nicholas,
protect the sailors in the hour of the storm.

May you live many years and be merry, you and yours,
and may your immigrant beloveds and all your sailors come back.

We wish you all to get love, peace and good health,
a jolly heart, a smile and blessings too.

First day of the month and first of the year, my tall rosemary tree,
and first of January, the day of Saint Basil.

(St.) Basil, my dear, wherever you're coming from and wherever you're descending,
holding roses and anointing,
sit down and feast, sit down and drink, sit down and tell us your troubles,
sit down and sing, and welcome us and come out and treat us,
may you live, may you live and get to an old age. "

Happy New Year! I'm excited to be entered into a draw for something I've never smelled, but have an enthusiasm based to the comments over the years of others on how beautifully made Amouage perfumes are.

My favorite charity is the ASPCA, like the commenter above. Thank you!

My vote goes to a Salvation Army-like Quebec City local institution that is called L'Auberivière. It started as a shelter for both men and women,but they grew into support and reinsertion programs that really work. They even have an organic garden on the top of their building!

WOW!!! What a wonderful draw and how great it is to see how many animal lovers are here. I have so many favorite charities but my newest one is barcs.org It started in Baltimore,Md. but now has different locations across throughout the U.S. It is a program that spays/neuters animals of low income or seniors for $10.00, how GREAT is that. I'd also like to mention Hector's House (in Greece) that also helps with animal rescue. I do love charities for animals as they don not have a voice in what happens to them. Happy New Year Elena.

What a nice way to end 2013 and begin 2014!! There are tons of amazing charities both big and small. My favorite is one called Hank's Hope in Wilmington, DE that was started by my dear friend Anne. It is named after her son who she lost when she was 8 months pregnant. Despite her loss and grief, Anne bravely began a charity called Hank's Hope that raises money to purchase teddy bears for mothers and fathers who lose a child in childbirth, miscarriage, etc. Included with the teddy bears it is Anne's desire that Hank's Hope can also raise money to provide therapeutic services for these parents. It's a wonderful charity and I have had the pleasure of seeing it from the beginning. It is amazing what a small gesture of kindness can do for someone who is grieving.

Thanks for the lovely New Year's Carol.In Australia we have a charity called Fitted for Work - they assist disadvantaged women in getting back into the workplace. These women have often had great tragedy, illness and bad circumstance happen in their lives. Fitted for Work gives them outfits to wear to interviews, coaching, training and most importantly confidence. A remarkable organisation who I support and admire and hope I shall never have need to be a client. Happy New Year and thank you for bringing so much olifactory joy to my life! Melanie

It's hard to pick one but I have a particular affinity for Best Friends Animal Society. Some day I would love to visit their animal sanctuary in Utah. Thanks for this generous draw and Happy New Year to all!

Have a lovely New Year darling Elena. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge and wittiness. My favorite thing in the world are cats so the charity of my choice is Big Cat Rescue.Thanks for your online presence.xxx

Thank you for offering this great giveaway. It may not be a popular choice but I am impressed with Ronald Macdonald House. I have a family member who had a very sick child and the services and support provided to the families was really amazing.

Happy New Year to you ElenaIt's so difficult to have only one charity. My heartfelt priorities at this time are for Traumatic Brain Injuries and for The Lucky Elephant.Thank you so much for opportunity drawing.

It's hard to choose my favourite charity, so I'll pick the most obscure one: the Marmot Recovery Foundation. It works to protect the highly endangered (and adorable!) Vancouver Island marmot - probably the rarest animal in North America, if not the entire New World - by saving its habitat in the wild and carrying out captive breeding to boost its numbers.

My favorite charity is the House of Ruth in Baltimore, Maryland--a shelter, counseling, and every other human need for women who have been victims of abuse. Thank you for this awesome draw and for all your wonderful posts throughout the years. I'm looking forward to more of them in 2014. Happy New Year!

Happy new year! let all the wishes and other goodness come true this year!

In my opinion, the biggest charity in my city is pets.ee - the biggest estonian animal shelter, made by strong and gorgeous woman Larissa for thowe, who were thrown away and has no home now. Everyone has a permission to be loved and live with those who loves and cares about you!I wish all of the creatures in our small planet to have their own home - a place, where you can rest and find your oun piece of heaven!Let it be!

Happy New Year. The charity that makes a lot of sense for me is called CANTEEN and it is based in NZ for kids that have cancer. My friend's brother died of leukemia and I have always had a soft spot for this charity ever since. They do great work.

I don't have a single favourite charity: while there are some that I give to every year (usually at or near year's end), I will often spontaneously give to whatever charity seems to need my support at the time. But if I had to choose one, it would probably be Planned Parenthood. They do good work.

Wow, what a luxurious perfume draw!My favourite charity is Amnesty International,they do incredible work and have prevented the untold misery of countless unfairly imprisoned people across the world.Wishing everyone a wonderful and fragrant 2014!

İncreadible giveaway! As for charity, "To Hamogelo tou Paidiou", for it's variety of activities regarding children (physical & mental health support, supporting hospitalised children with various activities, having home complexes to accommodate childen in need, as well as helping with their education and so on). İ can't believe they almost shut down due to financial crisis, İ am more than happy they made it, hope they never face such issues again :-)

What a wonderful draw!I've heard of Modest Needs over Perfume Posse and I find it a very inspiring,down to earth concept.Medecins sans frontieres is another one I like,ISPCA which protects animal rights,Meals on wheels.

My favorite charity is BiNA farm, an organization that gives hippotherapy to disabled kids. I volunteered a number of years there when I was in high school. Wonderful kids, wonderful staff, wonderfull horses, small organization. Over the years I saw definite improvements in so many kids, both physicallya nd mentally.

Happy new year too and all my best wishes in return! thank you for this merry song, I love to discover folk culture (such a lovely change from what we find everywhere)...Difficult to choose only one charity.. though I would say there is one I find very touching and always doing such a good job: it's called Les Petits Freres des Pauvres, helping the poor elderly people who are on their own and very poor (they do an amazing job of visiting, helping them...).Thank you again for your generosity:-)

What a fabulous give-away. Thank you! As my grandmother always said, charity begins at home, so we give frequently to the local community Food Bank. Nationally, the Canadian Red Cross and internationally, World Food Plan; both do great "boots on the ground" work.

My favorite charity is called Fare Start. It provides homeless people with the training to enter the food world, along with other support that they might need. It is a wonderful program. Thank you for the drawing!

I love idea of "Nota bene" newspaper. It is streetpaper sold by homeless people that can help them to gain some money and also to cover another projects with homeless people. Thanks for great giveaway - I wish you blessed and successful new year 2014! Lubica K. Slovakia

What a wonderful question you have posted. My favorite charity is the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica. My dream is to go there and volunteer. Now I need the money for the ticket ;)Happy New Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a lot of great, legitimate charities out there. One that I have been donating to for a while is Heifer International. Thirty dollars can purchase the gift of honeybees for a family in need. And that family will have vitamin- and mineral-rich honey to eat and sell, wax for making candles and up to three times the crop yields. I like this gift because I love bees, and the family has so many different outlets for income in raising them including improving their harvest.

My charity of choice is a local one, Lazarus House in Lawrence, MA. They provide emergency food and shelter along with more long-term services (such as transitional housing, training, and various forms of advocacy) in the poorest community in the state.

Thank you for the draw. I have three not-for-profits that I donate to: the Wilderness Society, Amnesty International and a the Kianh Foundation which uses donations directly into care for children with special needs in Hoi An, Vietnam. This last charity is well worth supporting as even a small donation can make a huge difference to the lives of these children.

It is hard to choose one since all rhe legitimate ones are doing such admirable work. I think Doctors without Borders is the one I choose, with UNICEF and ASPCA as close "runner-ups".Happy new year and thanks for the giveaway!

Amouage Dia has been in my wishlist like forever. I still could not afford it because it's way too pricey in my country. My favorite charity is the local SPCA organization which saves stray cats & dogs.Thank you for this lovely opportunity & I wish you a very Happy New Year!

My favorite charity is a small one- Brazos Feral Cat Allies in College Station, TX. In a college town, trap-spay-release is a constant job with careless young people moving off and abandoning their cats daily. These folks really maintain the feral populations like I have never seen anywhere else. Wish my city had a program as effective and dedicated.

The Reil House on Yakima Wa. They help moms who. Suffer from drug addiction get healthy so they can raise their children many of whom have been removed by CPS and become a productive member of society. The work they do is phenomenal. It's about the babies.

I would like to mention my favorite charity which is Children's Craniofacial Association which helps children with head and facial disfigurements, both medically and emotionally. If you can imagine a child with a disfigured face and wanted to know how you can help, this is the charity. (Website: ccakids.org Phone: 800.535.3643)

My favourite charity is The Smith Family, an Australian charity supporting families in need. I've sponsored a child through the Smith Family for some years. The money goes to educational costs, usually.

My favorite charity is a pleasure, giving treats to the local Animal Shelter and collecting towels and sheets. The charity that I need is giving to The International Red Cross. I give immediately because otherwise I can not speak to my siblings about emergency situations unless I have done something. We have a mutual pact amongst ourselves.

And a very Happy New Year to you and yours! Thank you so much for this song. Many Blessings to everyone! (Rosemary next to the sea, with roses too. I can imagine it right now.) Also thank you for the drawing. How lovely!Hard to choose one charity. I help out some of our local animal rescue groups, including my own vet. Dr. McCashion is an angel in a lab coat! Heifer International has always been a favorite. Oceana... help save our oceans! Walk Free... PLEASE check them out!!!! So much need... so many people stepping up to help. Restores my faith in humanity.

Thank you for hosting this drawing. My favorite charities are Unicef, Habitat for Humanity, and my local church which hosts a Hypothermia Prevention week for homeless people in our area in cooperation with other churches and our county government.

Imagine what your lives would be like not only without perfume, but without the ability to smell or taste anything at all. I encourage you all to consider Fifth Sense (www.fifthsense.org.uk), the UK's first charity devoted to anosmia - smell and taste disorders. It is being launched by Duncan Boak, a remarkable guy I met on a perfumery course I took last summer (which I found out about here) - he is doing everything from scratch himself, from bringing together top science and medical experts; relevant industry participants (food, fragrance, other); to reaching out to potential members around the world, in order to establish a resource for all things anosmia.Please be generous with your support - either financial, professional or moral.

My favorite charity is the Belfast Soup Kitchen and Good Shepard Food Pantry in the town where I live. Officially, 17% of the town lives below the poverty line; I know the number is much higher. Small charities do much good and their resources are limited, to say the least. In this case, as with most (if not all) local charities, it's neighbor helping neighbor. Thanks for the draw and Happy New Year!

Elena Vosnaki has been the Perfume History Curatorof the Be Open Foundation exhibitionThe Garden of Wonders, A Journey in Scents in Milan EXPO, as well as a guest lecturer at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She was Fragrance Expert onAbout.com. Her writing has been twice shortlisted in FIFI Editorial Excellence Awards and is extensively quoted by authors. She is an evaluating expert on Osmoz.com. Interviews regarding Vosnaki's unique status as perfume historian & writer appear in VOGUE Hellas, ICON Magazine and Queen.gr